HEAL Winchendon Celebrates "A Taste of Winchendon"
Attendees enjoy multiple forms of international cuisine ranging from Egyptian to Puerto Rican delights and more.
Photo by Keith Kent
Brian Dickens entertains the crowd with a diverse range of song styles and lyrics.
Photo by Keith Kent
HEAL Winchendon celebrated a Taste of Winchendon on the lawn of the Beals Memorial Library Saturday, June 12, delighting those in attendance with international cultural experiences from all over the world.
HEAL Winchendon states its mission on its website as: "A community movement for long lasting, up-stream change to improve the health and quality of life of Winchendon's residents. We work hand in hand, building on our shared strengths and knowledge to address the daily struggles and needs of Community residents, in the three independent areas of Healthy Food Access, Economic Empowerment, and Social Inclusion."
"Taste of Winchendon" was designed to provide an inclusive, multicultural celebration of diversity. It attracted both locals and people from out of town, with singing, dance performances demonstrating international artistic styles, and food with flavors from around the globe.
The event promoted and featured international cuisine provided by local vendors and residents, offering up a variety of tasty treats to enthusiastic attendees as they moved from tent to tent. The HEAL Winchendon food offerings were free of charge to the public thanks to a generous grant allowing HEAL to pay the various food providers for their creations.
Not Just Produced served Pulled Pork. Winchendon entrepreneur Ilia Diaz provided popular Puerto Rican cuisine including Puerto Rican Pulled Pork, Beef Empanadas, Guava Empanadas, Puerto Rican rice and Puerto Rican potato salad. Pizza slices and an Egyptian pasta dish were prepared by Gabby's Pizza. Both Savory and Sweet Baklava came from the chefs at C&S Pizza. These and other tasty treats had a steady stream of people coming through the food tents all event long, with many going back for seconds.
HEAL Project Manager Miranda Jennings said, "Ilia was up cooking all night the last two nights to help bring all this awesome Puerto Rican food here. She even did all the desserts here today, with Guava Pineapple Cupcakes, Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla cupcakes and more!"
Looking to promote diversity on a variety of town boards with open seats to be filled, Director of Planning and Development Tracy Murphy and Town Manager's Assistant Taylor Tower worked an information booth highlighting openings and seeking applicants.
Winchendon Board of Selectmen members Audrey LaBrie, Barbara Anderson, and Rick Ward attended in support of the HEAL event, with LaBrie even volunteering to be dunked in the dunk tank for the cause.
HEAL Project Manager Miranda Jennings (center) informs attendees about the agency's multiple mission statements and causes they support.
Photo by Keith Kent
The Winchendon Cultural Council provided a grant to fund 25 street pole banners, featuring original artwork by Winchendon young people and adults, which will decorate downtown streets. The banner art contest, run with the assistance of the Gardner Area League of Artists (GALA), will amplify what residents love about Winchendon and hope to reach for a better future. Hundreds of public school students took part in the banner contest, with the winners to be chosen by GALA and the WCC.
The event's young organizational team comprised members ranging in ages from 15 to 21, including Angelina Dellasanta, 15, Camille Heart, 16, Julia Brennan, 16, Shane Burton, 16, Logan LeBlanc, 18, and Jeremy Diaz, 21.
Youngest organizing member Angelina Dellasanta was excited about the event and what its cause meant as a planner and helper. Dellasanta said, "Our group is called the Youth Change Makers which is a working group. Our goal is to involve the youth of Winchendon to make events like this with the goal of bringing everybody together. Our positions are applied for, and we as students of Winchendon are passionate about bringing people together in creating diversity, culture, and just being able to celebrate it.
"I like the idea of promoting cultural causes and service in Winchendon," Dellasanta added. "I have grown up here in this town my entire life, and I genuinely want to make Winchendon a better place for everybody to be celebrated and welcomed."
Camielle Hart was asked what about the event stands out to her. Hart responded, "The one thing I kept in mind for today was how separated our community became throughout the pandemic and also the events that occurred during it. I think this event can bring everybody together through the food and celebrations of culture we have here today while celebrating Winchendon as a whole, that's incredibly important.
"I am really excited to be part of planning this and providing it to our residents and being given the opportunity to come here and make it all happen. We all live here and we all have something in common."
Jeremy Diaz who is 21 years old and assisted with sound and music on stage, was heavily involved with the event's planning according to Dellasanta and Hart.
When asked about the HEAL celebration, Diaz said, "It really means a lot to me to see how this all came together into play, and also how many people are coming here today to support the event. We just want to help people get to learn different cultures and know about different parts of the world."
From the Winchendon Community Action Committee (CAC) to Growing Places, multiple organizations were on hand taking part in the event. Heywood Healthcare sponsored the raffle baskets, Winchendon Public Schools assisted with many tables and supplies, CHNA9 funded the grant which the Youth Change Makers applied for and received, GALA contributed with an art show next door, free ice cream and hundreds of dollars in raffle prizes. The Winchendon School and GFA Credit Union also aided in the event cause.
HEAL Project Manager Miranda Jennings, at the end of the day, was very pleased with how everything went. Jennings said, "This was our first huge event, our first event, we bit off a lot, and we rocked it. Every single member of our HEAL team worked their butts off and brought something different to it. They all owned it. This wouldn't have been possible if we didn't do it as a team. I am just amazed.
"I think we did a really good job modeling what HEAL is really all about which is bringing and empowering our youth, our residents, so our youth and residents worked leading it all. Our Town Manager came here, all our supporting organization were here, so many did so much in different ways."
Speaking of current projects, Jennings said, "Our Youth Change Makers have been working on a little project of theirs called a Mobile Cafe, selling fair trade organic coffee and local goods, because our goal is to have another cafe in Winchendon where it is a place for more youth to be able to hang out. Money raised today will be for the youth here to direct toward that and other projects.
"The entire point of today's event was to bring our community here, celebrate our community and all the diversity here, and our voices. We did that and more," Jennings said. "I am very happy with how it all came together, and our young members did a awesome job!"
Fiona Bryne, formerly of Ireland, a resident of the USA for 9 years and Winchendon for 7, sings the song "Parting Glass," receiving a healthy round of applause from the crowd.
Photo by Keith Kent
Growing Places attends the Taste of Winchendon celebration providing fresh foods with their mobile produce facility.
Photo by Keith Kent
ConComm Hearing for Community Park Amphitheatre Project Raises Questions, Concerns
At a hearing before the Conservation Commission on Thursday, June 10, David Pollak from Abacus Architects + Planners and Daniel Gagne, Professional Engineer from Beals+Thomas, Inc. presented the latest updates in the plans for an open-air amphitheatre and stage proposed for the Winchendon Community Park off of Maple Street. Both residents and Commission members raised numerous questions and concerns about the evolving project.
The amphitheatre construction is being funded entirely by the Robinson Broadhurst Foundation. It was first introduced at a public meeting on January 30, 2020 at the American Legion Post 193 (see "Focus Group Offers Feedback on Plans for Amphitheatre in Winchendon Community Park" in the January 30-February 6 2020 edition of the Courier). More details, including the full history of the proposal from Robinson Broadhurst, were given at a public hearing before the Board of Selectmen on November 9, 2020 (see "Robinson Broadhurst Foundation and Abacus Architects Present Plans and Timeline for Performing Arts Center in Winchendon Community Park" in the November 12-19 2020 edition of the Courier).
The overall design of the amphitheatre remains the same, but some changes and refinements have been made. The amphitheatre will consist of tiered seating with space to accommodate about 300 people. The retaining walls of the tiers will be constructed of pre-fabricated concrete sections with natural fieldstone faces, dividing the slope into broad grass-covered terraces. The tiers will face Whitney Pond. A 24 x 38 foot roofed stage, open at the back, will face the tiers. The drive from Maple Street to the amphitheatre will be repaved. A 50-space parking lot will be constructed in the woods above the amphitheatre, on the west side of the drive, with overflow parking for up to 156 additional cars in the soccer field near the park entrance. Separate handicap accessible parking spaces in an earlier version of the plan are now incorporated into the general parking lot. A new lighted sidewalk will lead from Maple Street to the amphitheatre, accessible to wheelchair users, and electrical service to the site will be upgraded. Handicap accessible portable toilets will be available in warmer weather. A road encircling the amphitheatre and stage will allow small load-in trucks, emergency vehicles, and wheelchairs access to the stage. The front edge of the stage will be level with the grass in front of it.
The plan includes removing the house currently at the site. The Winchendon Fire Department plans to do a controlled burn of the building as a training exercise. The foundation will be removed below grade and filled, returning the space to level grass. The barn and garage on the site will be renovated at a future time.
The Town of Winchendon has applied for a Complete Streets grant to improve safety at the pedestrian crossing on Maple Street to the entrance of the park. Currently the only sidewalk on Maple Street is across the street from the park. Plans include curb cuts for wheelchairs and pedestrian signals to alert drivers.
The Town is engaging an independent security consultant to improve security in the park. Concerns have been raised about the chronic vandalism and littering in the park at the present time, and the vulnerability of the new facility. "All the design of the amphitheatre and the parking and the lighting is all going to be as vandal-resistant, and as quiet as possible, so that there won't be any attractive nuisance presented by the new construction," Mr. Pollak stated.
Mr. Pollak stated that plans for use of the stage are still "nascent"--programs could include concerts, a high school play, movie nights, and so on, it's very open. "What we have designed is low-impact and low maintenance, that will be a lovely place three hundred and sixty five days of the year, so that if somebody is just snowshoeing through there in the winter, it's just a nice, quiet place to be," he said. "It's useful, but doesn't cost the town a lot of money to keep up."
Mr. Gagne then took the microphone to explain that storm water management and wetlands protection features include pervious pavement in the parking area, rip rap below the stage where the ground slopes down to the pond and along the access road around the amphitheatre, a detention basin on the east side of the driveway, and a crushed stone swale between the repaved driveway and the new sidewalk. One corner of the stage extends slightly into the 100-foot wetland buffer zone around the pond.
The full presentation may be viewed here. (PDF)
Maple Street resident Rick Lucier raised a question about the accuracy of the hundred year high water mark on the plans. "I know right now it's down considerably because of the drought and because of the broken dam [Whites Mill Dam]," he said. "If that dam was fixed and the water was at the current level, that line comes way the heck up, and it should be marked on the flood maps that show that hundred-year high water mark."
Mr. Lucier continued, "As an abutter to this property, I don't want to give any authorization to move forward on this project until somebody can tell me why they're going to kill all these live trees that are in that buffer area. There's a presence over there of a bald and juvenile eagles that are in these areas, these are their hunting perches. There is one tree that's already been designated as a stay-away zone, it's behind the barn, Lionel got somebody from Westborough to come out and sighted it, and said there's a 75-foot circumference around that tree that cannot be touched. This park was to be a community park and a wildlife refuge area. You put that in there, you're going to destroy a lot of the habitat and the natural running area, where the deer go along the waterline and flourish through there."
Mr. Lucier also pointed out that Maple Street at that point is a state road, Route 202 North. "It took about a year and a half just to get a grant to put the curb cut in the exit road" to the park, which he helped to design. "Do they foresee that this is going to take a lot of time? Cause the state does not move very quickly when you go looking for a curb cut."
Mr. Lucier was asked to organize his concerns into a bullet-pointed list and provide it to the Commission so they could consider the issues individually. Mr. Lucier said he would like a chance to examine the plans in detail.
After the discussion digressed slightly into uses of the park, which did not fall under the purview of the Conservation Commission, the Commission raised questions about the location of the amphitheatre and parking, asking whether they could be pushed further back from the water and reduce the potential impact on the wetland buffer zones. "This is conservation [land] and you've got plenty of room to stay out of that hundred foot and seventy-five foot zone," said Commission member David Whittaker. "I really think you need to bump it back."
Mr. Pollak responded, "The position of all of the park components has been very carefully worked over a long period of time, and with very close attention to the buffers. The vision for the amphitheatre is an outdoor room in the woods. And in order to place it in the woods, we need to make sure that it's far enough from the traffic circle and the driveway and the dropoff that there can be trees between the barn and the driveway, and the experience of the amphitheatre. And so we've got the stage and the stage roof just edging into the hundred foot buffer, and then we've got some storm water mitigation, or the scouring mitigation just behind that."
Mr. Pollak went on, "To push it completely, just up up up up, means it's going to be right on the road. You'll drive down that road and you'll be in the amphitheatre, and you won't have the same sense of being in the woods."
He added that the amphitheatre components had been carefully positioned so that none of the existing trails in the park would have to be moved. Pushing back any of them would impact the trails.
Mr. Whittaker said that his real issue was the position of the amphitheatre itself so close to the water. Mr. Pollak explained that they were taking advantage of the old "carriage road" which the stage sits against, and which creates a flat space behind the stage. "We are here for feedback, we really want to know," Mr. Pollak said. "We want to come back at the continuation with something that meets the needs of this Board, as well as the town in general, broadly."
Elm Street resident Lisa Gauthier came to the microphone to express concerns about the "carriage road" which was once known as Ingleside Drive and begins at the corner of Maple and Elm Streets near her home. "This is the first I heard of an amphitheatre, is the last few months. Never heard of it before. And I'm a direct abutter," she stated. "And what is the plan for Ingleside Drive, are they going to pave it, are they going to do something to it, are there going to be cars driving on it?" She stated that she "has seen nothing but trouble" since the park opened and that park visitors park on Elm Street. Winchendon Community Park Committee member Jane LaPointe explained that the road is just a walking trail and will remain so. Ms. Gauthier was advised to take her concerns to the Planning Board.
The hearing was continued to July 8.
